The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) will have a public hearing on its proposed expansion of the Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge on Monday, March 31 at the Community Center, 429 South 9th Street, Jay, Oklahoma from 7 to 10 p.m.
The Service proposes to expand the Refuge (formerly Oklahoma Bat Caves National Wildlife Refuge) from 3,000 up to 15,000 acres by purchasing land or conservation easements at fair market value from willing sellers or donors. The public is invited to review the proposal and has until April 11, 2003 to submit comments.
Lands would be acquired in fee title or in conservation/access/management easements at fair market value from willing sellers and donors. Funds to purchase lands or easements would come from the Land and Water Conservation Fund from off-shore oil leases, or the Tri-State (Tar Creek) Superfund Site Natural Resources Damage Assessment (Ottawa County), not from income taxes. Lands will not be condemned for this refuge and there will be no regulatory actions affecting neighboring landowners. The Service pays county governments Refuge Revenue Sharing payments in-lieu-of taxes for lands it owns within those counties.
Currently, the Refuge covers 3,067 acres in Adair, Delaware, and Ottawa Counties. The Refuge would like to include ecologically important units in Cherokee, Craig, Mayes, and Sequoyah Counties by protecting up to an additional 11,933 acres from within a proposed expansion area. A 15,000-acre refuge would encompass half of one percent of the total acreage of the seven counties. Refuge tracts will likely be scattered, small tracts in mostly hilly, wooded areas.
The Service has released an Environmental Assessment, Land Protection Plan, and Conceptual Management Plan that describes the proposal and addresses anticipated impacts on the human and natural environment.
The documents are available on the internet at ,/http://southwest.fws.gov">, click on Hot Topics, at the main county public libraries or by calling Jeannie Wagner-Greven at (505) 248-6633. Send comments to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 1306, Division of Planning, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87103, by facsimile to (505) 248-6874 or by electronic mail to jeannie_wagnergreven@fws.gov.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses nearly 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
